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Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies pp 612–622Cite as

Distance Learning

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Synonyms

Communication technologies; Computer-assisted learning; Computer-based training; Educational technologies; Information technologies; Instruction; Learning; Technology; Web-based instruction

Introduction

Distance learning, as a label to describe the use of educational and information technologies for instruction and learning, suggests a shortcoming either in the way that the instruction is conceived and delivered or in the appropriateness of the instruction for learning by qualifying “learning” with the adjective “distance.” Were traditional or conventional classroom-based instruction described as, for example, “co-locational learning,” we might be tempted to focus on how learning is influenced specifically by material artifacts such as table and chair arrangements, lighting, ambient distractions, student-to-student proximity, and so on. While these are issues that are worth studying (and are indeed published in journals such as Learning Environments Research), they have been...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Brad Mehlenbacher & Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher

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  1. Brad Mehlenbacher
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  2. Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher
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Correspondence to Brad Mehlenbacher .

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  1. Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Arthur Tatnall

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    Mehlenbacher, B., Mehlenbacher, A.R. (2020). Distance Learning. In: Tatnall, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10576-1_66

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